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Fondue

Pork Fondue in Lemongrass Broth keeps the broth fondue’s new and interesting!

The holiday season is a time to build lasting memories with family and friends. It allows you to reconnect with those you don’t see or speak to very often, and gives the opportunity to create new traditions with those you love.

Pork Fondue in Lemongrass Broth

We have several Christmas traditions in our home we factor in every December and a few of these include opening new pyjamas on Christmas Eve, and marking off December days on an advent calendar. These are the moments we carry with us, not the gifts we receive, and it’s these special times we like to reflect upon with our own family while we create new memories.

As children we did not have family close by, so Christmas’s were spent with friends. There would be Christmas music and singing, a traditional turkey dinner complete with Christmas cake, and lots of laughter. As adults with our own families we also spend Christmas with friends since our family is not near by.

Pork Fondue in Lemongrass Broth

One of our holiday traditions is to fondue with friends Christmas Eve. If we have time we also fondue on New Year’s Eve. The Christmas Eve Fondue-palooza evening begins with a gathering of friends at The Festival of Lights at Confederation Park, for a wander through the Christmas lights and some sledding until it gets too cold.

After an hour or two at the park, we head back to the house to prepare for our potluck fondue evening. Every family pitches in bringing food and beverages. This broth fondue can be prepared in advance and reheated when it’s time to eat. In addition there are several cheese fondues on the table, like a classic Swiss Fondue. And a simple Chocolate Fondue.

Fondue is an exciting way to get family and friends together around the table, and initiate some great conversations while having fun with your food. Here is one of several broth fondues we enjoy during the season, Pork Fondue in Lemongrass Broth. Freeze leftover cooled off broth and use later one in soups and stews.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by the makers of ZANTAC®, but the opinions expressed are my own.

The world of fondue is a fun one. With so many varieties of fondue to partake in, you could eat Fondue every night and never get bored. This Old Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Fondue is one of our favourites and contains an ingredient that surprises most people!

Old Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Fondue

A favourite in this house, this fondue is loaded with old cheddar cheese and bacon. It’s extra fun because it’s always a battle at the end to fish out the last pieces of bacon and fortunately there have never been any causalities during battle bacon, yet. Other favourite cheese fondues of ours? One with beer and of course the Classic Swiss Fondue.

The surprise ingredient I referenced earlier, it’s sour cream. You will be surprised when you taste this fondue, you will not even know there is sour cream in it. Sour cream adds a hint of tart to the fondue and replaces the need for any additional acid. Plus it’s a natural thickener.

Old Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Fondue

When we fondue we like to have two or more fondues on the table. A cheese fondue variation and a meat in broth fondue. The kids are slowly coming round to cheese fondue, have always loved the broth ones and request Chocolate Fondue regularly. It’s actually a fun way to wind up or down a birthday party gathering.

Since we enjoy fondueing, we try new variations all the time. Some make the cut, some not so much, however it’s definitely a fun evening to have with family or friends!

If you try our Old Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Fondue let us know what you think in the comments below!

A Chocolate Fondue that is simple to make, easy to eat and will leave your guests so impressed they want to buy their own fondue pot!

Chocolate Fondue

Our chocolate fondue recipe is one I have made so many times it’s forever lodged in my brain. As long as I have a proper fondue pot, and access to ingredients, I can make it anywhere.

Sometimes we make it with booze, sometimes we don’t. The alcohol does add a slight hint of flavour depending on which kind you use. Same with sprinkles, sometimes we use them, sometimes we don’t. That is the great thing about this fondue, you can change it up ever so slightly each time and the sprinkles are really for the kids.

The Fondue Pot

It’s important to use the correct pot when making a chocolate or dessert fondue. These pots are designed specifically for desserts and typically come in earthenware, ceramic, porcelain or even tempered glass but we stay away from glass. They will be smaller and their heat sources are candle or gel fuel burner to keep the chocolate warm without over heating.

Chocolate Fondue

Chocolate Fondue Dippers

Dippers for a chocolate fondue are the funnest ingredients to prepare and sample while preparing! Here’s a few dippers we have tried over the years all sliced in to bite size pieces where applicable.

The first time I had an authentic Classic Swiss Fondue was in Lucerne, Switzerland at the Stadtkeller Restaurant during our European vacation back in the 90s.

Swiss Fondue

One could say I quite enjoyed the taste of a classic swiss fondue. We also took in a folklore show while enjoying our fondue in Switzerland, and did some yodeling which I failed at miserably.

In Switzerland I learned the components of a Swiss Fondue are simple; wine, garlic, cheese, (Gruyere and Michaël Tell Alp cheese or an Emmentaler cheese) and sometimes before serving they add a touch of kirsch. Since kirsch is an acquired taste, I tend to leave it out.

When fondue became big back in the 70s, people put their own spin on a Swiss Fondue still using these the same ingredients. Some prefer to rub the fondue pot with garlic, I see no point in this. In Lucerne they put the garlic in the fondue and leave it. I prefer not to have garlic swimming in my cheese.

Swiss Fondue with dippers

I slice the garlic into a few pieces and add it to the wine to simmer for a 1-2 minutes. The garlic is then removed from the wine before the cheese is added. The flavour of the garlic is left in the fondue without any bits.

Besides cheese and chocolate, there are two other fondues I learned about in Switzerland; chinoise fondue (a Chinese meat turned soup) or bourguignonne fondue (a Swiss meat in oil). Due to splatter, residue and other reasons, we stay away from oil and prefer broth (chinoise style).

Swiss Cheese Fondue

As in other fondues we do, cheese fondues come in many varieties. If you love to fondue and want to expand your fondue horizons, check out our Old Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Fondue.

Did you know that vendors in Switzerland sell a pre-made shredded blend of cheese ready to go? This is due to the popularity of fondue in Switzerland.

Enjoy this healthy and delicious Teriyaki Beef Fondue with all your favourite dippers and a few you may not have thought about.

This Teriyaki Beef Fondue is one of the first recipes I ever added to my blog back in 2006. Amazing how time flies. Fondue has been around for well over fifty years as it was huge back in the 1970’s and since then it’s popularity continues to come and go. But it’s never gone away.

My parents never owned a fondue, but I thought melting cheese in a fry pan and dipping bread in the melted cheese was spectacular. I got my first fondue when I moved to Vancouver (1989) and my whole world became much happier (cheese and bread, need I say more). I fondued throughout the 1990’s and accessories were readily available everywhere.

Met my husband and learned quickly he loves fondue too. So we kept adding to our hardware collection and trying new recipes. Now we fondue as a family as it’s such a fun way to spend an evening with friends, family or even just the four of us. Great food, drink and conversation.

We mostly do a broth variation, couple of cheese and a dessert fondue. We rarely ever do oil as we find it leaves an oil residue in the house, on our clothes and in our hair. Plus broth is more flavourful, a healthier option, and safer if your kids are young.

We prepare a variety of items for dipping. With broth fondue you can dip par boiled baby potatoes, smoked cooked sausage or pepperoni, the kids like dipping mushrooms and even some vegetable pieces (no judging). For cheese we run the gauntlet here and prepare cauliflower, lightly steamed broccoli, bread, taco chips, an array of veggies, and more. Plus crossover the sausage, pepperoni and baby potatoes for more fun on your stick.

This fondue is flavourful and to enhance it even more we marinate the beef overnight which adds the wow factor to the beef. Once we are finished fondueing we freeze the leftover broth for later use in a beef stew, soup or casserole of sorts. Right now we are into electric fondue pots for our broth and the fondue oil pot for our cheese or chocolate fondues. Electric fondue pots allow us to better regulate the temperature for our meat fondues. Always have additional broth on hand as it cooks down and intensifies the flavour as it simmers in your pot. Making it the perfect leftover pot of brothy goodness.

PRO TIPS:

If you have remaining beef leftover, cook it all at the end and save it for adding to wraps or sandwiches the next day.

Cool down leftover broth and freeze for later use in soups, stews and any dish requiring beef broth.

We further make sure everyone has at least 2-3 sticks on hand. One for meat and one for cheese. Leftover raw meat gets tossed into the pot for a quick cook and refrigerating before cooling the broth down to freeze.

Try this fun fondue on your next date night, family gathering or hanging out with friends.

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Join me on my adventures both in and out of the kitchen! We travel in search of new experiences, go on adventures both near and far and cook in the kitchen creating new recipes, re-create recipes from previous generations, and seek out crazy food combinations yet sticking true to comfort food and simple recipes.